Live Online Mindfulness Sessions

Recurring Live Sessions

Please note: Session times are listed as UK time which is currently GMT.

East Coast Mindfulness, a fully online mindfulness teaching and teacher training organization, offers a free weekly Worldwide Online Sit on Thursdays 5.10-5.50pm UK time (12.10-12.50pm US Eastern); Find Worldwide Online Sit information and registration here. They maintain a complete collection of videos of the Worldwide Online Sit, for those who wish to access these teachings afterwards. East Coast Mindfulness offers online MBSR, MBSR teacher training, and many other mindfulness programs. You can find out more here.

UCSD Centre for Mindfulness, Sandford Institute for Empathy and Compassion and the Compassion Institute are collaborating to offer many daily live mindfulness and compassion sessions from Monday to Friday, as well as recordings of practices. Times range from 2.30pm UK time to 1.30am UK time (6.30am PT to 5.00pm PT).

The Mindfulness Association, a UK-based mindfulness teacher-training organisation, are offering daily live practice sessions through Zoom at 10.30-11.00am and 7.00-8.00pm UK time with practice followed by some space for a chat. They also have recordings of previous practice sessions on Youtube.

Keep Calmer are a group of mindfulness teachers who began to volunteer their time to run practice sessions during the Covid-19 pandemic. They are offering week-day practice sessions at 6.00-6.30pm UK time.

The Oxford Mindfulness Centre, a UK-based mindfulness teacher-training organisation, are offering weekly live talks through Zoom every Wednesday 7.00pm UK time. Participant numbers are limited to 1000 but recordings are made available within a day or two (see recorded talks below).

The Mindfulness Network, a UK-based mindfulness teacher-training organisation, are offering free online practice sessions on Fridays 8.15-8.45am, as well as a range of other offers delivered by a network of trainers, supervisors and retreat leads. Check their website for upcoming sessions. They also have plenty of free mindfulness audio downloads here.

Gaia House, a retreat centre in the UK, is opening an Online Dharma Hall: a new space for connection, reflection, and refuge, "a place where we can share the Dharma and practice together, supporting us to meet our lives and our world in these times." This may be more suitable for people who have an established mindfulness practice. Sessions last around 1 hour 30 minutes and are offered via Zoom at the following times (UK time):

Saturdays, 5.00pm

Sundays, 9.30am

Mindfulness in Action, based in Cardiff, Wales, are running daily live sessions at 10.00am UK time, Tuesday to Friday, including a led practice and some time for connection.

Free Mindfulness Resources as a Response to Covid-19

The spread of coronavirus since 2020 has led to significant changes for many of us across the world. We have been dealing with challenging circumstances in terms of our work, home life or financial situations, while making sense of moving most of our interactions with others in to the online world.

It is heartwarming to see that many organisations and teachers are providing free access to mindfulness online. Below is a list of offerings that are, free, mindfulness-related resources from experienced teachers. If you are aware of a mindfulness resource that has been developed or some freely-available online practice sessions, feel free to email: peter@freemindfulness.org*

Recorded Talks

Dr. Jud Brewer, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who specializes in mindfulness, anxiety and habit change has produced a series of short videos (each around 5 minutes long) on his YouTube channel on how to work with fear, anxiety, uncertainty and other relevant topics, and also gives tips on how to develop healthy mindful habits. Click here to watch. Jud also led a talk in collaboration with the Oxford Mindfulness Centre on 1st April about 'Fear + Uncertainty = Anxiety. Working with Uncertainty.'

On Wednesday 25th March 2020, Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction, was live with, 'Mindfulness, healing and wisdom in a time of Covid-19'. A recording of this session is here on Youtube.

Jon Kabat-Zinn offered many live sessions through March - June 2020, recordings can be found on Youtube here.

The Oxford Mindfulness Centre, a UK-based mindfulness teacher-training organisation, have offered a series of talks through Zoom. A recording of all talks to date can be found here.

Tara Brach has given a talk, 'Facing Pandemic Fears With an Awake Heart'. Tara Brach is a clinical psychologist, an internationally known teacher of mindfulness meditation, and author.

Jack Kornfield is an American Buddhist teacher. He is a founder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, California, US. He has recorded a short 15-minute practice of 'A Steady Heart' in response to the coronavirus situation. The practice invites an awareness of and opening to and making space for any challenging body sensations, feelings, and mind activity, in the midst of what is currently happening.

Online Courses

Breathworks is a mindfulness organisation founded in the UK. Vidyamala Burch is well known in the mindfulness community for her work around mindfulness and health. She has written a blog post, and Breathworks have developed an online course 'Mindful self-care for troubling times' specifically around coping with the impact of coronavirus. A new course for health professionals is also available called 'The Quiet Space.'

Palouse Mindfulness is based in the US. The site offers free online resources for an eight week mindfulness-based stress reduction course. The site is an excellent resource if you wish to learn more about mindfulness.

Articles

Tara Brach is a well-respected psychologist, author and mindfulness teacher in the US. Tara been interviewed in Vox in relation to Coronavirus and how we might cope.

The Mindfulness in Schools Project has written a brief piece about how we can practice mindful handwashing.

Some thoughts on creating a home meditation spot.

Apps

Headspace is a well-known App for learning mindfulness. There is a subscription to access the full range of resources within the App, but a specific free section called 'Weathering the Storm' has been put together in response to Coronavirus.

Insight Timer (Apple, Android) began as a simple timer, but now has thousands of meditations accessible for free. It does include lots of mindfulness as we might find it in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy or stress reduction, but there are also many other approaches to meditation. Insight timer have also launched a website for easy access to the same set of resources.

Practice Downloads

Mark Williams, one of the developers of Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, has released some new grounding meditations of varying lengths (10,20,30 minutes).

Chris Molnar, Clinical Psychologist & President, META & Psychological Wellness Center, has a collection of free mindfulness meditations and articles with an emphasis on relating to anxiety and fear.

Our Free Resources section offers plenty of guided mindfulness practices from a variety of mindfulness teachers. See also the links section for more variety.

Christine Longaker is an author, palliative care and self-compassion trainer and is offering 'Spiritual care resources for illness, dying or grief' as well as a self compassion practice, 'Feeling worthy of love.'

Poetry

Lynn Ungar has written a new poem entitled, 'Pandemic'. The poem begins, 'What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath—the most sacred of times?'

Words to Sit With is our sister site, with a collection of contemporary mindfulness poetry. New poems in response to our current circumstances include 'Together', 'This Long Night' and 'Feeling Frantic in a Peaceful World'.You may wish to peruse the collection, or you might feel inspired to write something and share your words.

*We will be keeping the resources listed here focused around offerings from experienced mindfulness teachers and established organisations. We will do our best to keep the listings accurate and of high quality. As you might expect, we can't take responsibility for the content of external sites, but if you do have any issue after following any of the above links or any no longer work then please let us know so we can correct any inaccuracies. Many thanks!